The Substitutes & Billy Miller present ‘Double Trouble’

The Substitutes have been around for nearly ten years recreating that ‘60s excitement and rawness that can easily get lost with tribute bands. Listen to a frenetic Kinks guitar solo or a Keith Moon drum roll and know that the ‘60s were about experimentation and risk taking, as well as great pop songs.

So what happens when Melbourne’s “ultimate” ’60s band, gets together with the charismatic and dynamic singer/guitarist Billy Miller, a musician whose writing and playing career spans 30 years including long stints with The Ferrets, Great Blokes, Spaniards and the Love Brothers?

DOUBLE TROUBLE is the answer!

Billy and band will kick off the night with an acoustic set and then The Substitutes will join him to trawl through the finest, grooviest, most danceable songs of the ’60s. This is will be a very special gig for both bands.

Billy Miller
Billy is best known as the singer of The Ferrets (“Don’t Fall In Love”). He has been performing, composing and producing for over 40 years, starting with acoustic spots in 1969, then 3 years in the cast of “Jesus Christ Superstar” (1972-75), where he met bass player Ken Firth, and soon after formed The Ferrets (1976-1979).

Successful recording bands, The Great Blokes (‘Perpetual Motion’) and The Spaniards (‘God Is A Shield’), followed The Ferrets, and then throughout the 1990s Billy helped create many of the biggest TV commercials for McDonalds, Cadbury, Ford, Sony, Telstra in addition to producing or performing on many albums. He also composed the ABC’s ‘Countdown’ theme music.

The Substitutes are:
Neil Scott
Neil Scott grew up in Manchester and learnt to play guitar by listening to records by The Beatles, The Hollies and The Who. His natural ability and a succession of bands lead him to tour Australia as part of the successful British pop band Chalice who elected to stay at the end of the tour. Neil remained with Chalice until they split in 1979 when he went on to play with a number of popular Australian bands, notably Captain Spalding. He is an extraordinary guitarist, a fine lead singer and his Mancunian accent enables him to sing a range of British ‘60s songs with uncanny authenticity.

Peter Reed
Peter Reed is a veteran of Melbourne’s rock scene who began his career as the drummer in pop band the New Dream who had half a dozen top 10 hits in the late ‘60s. Since then he has played and recorded with numerous bands such as Gary Young’s Hot Dog (at Sunbury ’74), Pantha, the Mark Gillespie Band, The Tremors (with Kerryn Tolhurst from the Dingoes), Lynne Randell Band, the Phil Manning Band, the Jane Clifton Band. He has taught drums to budding students for many years (including Daddy Cool’s Gary Young) and is a highly regarded technician.

Pete Robinson
Pete was a founder member of one of Melbourne’s first ‘60s pop bands, The Strangers. This band appeared regularly on TV, had at least a dozen national hits, and featured John Farrar who went on to become a successful songwriter in the US. Pete’s subsequent musical career has included such roles as television musical director, arranger, record producer for the likes of John Farnham, Johnny Young, Russell Morris, Ted Mulry and the Masters Apprentices. Most recently Pete was invited to become Music Director for the Go-Show reunion shows that have toured Australia annually since 2010. Pete is very well known and highly respected within Melbourne musical circles.

Peter Summers
Peter has been obsessed with music in all forms his entire life and played in many different sorts of bands (jazz, country rock, punk) before forming New Wave band Strange Idols in 1979. They recorded a single and album and toured extensively in the early 1980’s. In 1984 Peter retired from music because of family commitments but re-emerged in 2004 after being forced to attend yet another corporate event with a B-grade covers band (involving a laptop computer). He decided to prove that ‘60s music could be played with the fire and originality of the period and hence formed The Substitutes with some first class likeminded musicians. The rest is on youtube.